Good Morning Britain’s Dr Hilary says the idea of virtual GP consultations replacing face-to-face ones ‘worries him tremendously.’
His comments follow reports that GPs are being told to encourage patients to go online, even after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Virtual consultations have become commonplace in the past year since the UK went into lockdown for the first time last March.
Since then the Royal College of General Practitioners announced there is a ‘compelling case’ to keep virtual consultations in place after Covid.
But GMB’s Dr Hilary said on the programme this morning that he’s concerned this could harm the doctor-patient relationship.
“This worries me tremendously,” he said.
“I’m an old school GP who believes in face-to-face consultation, getting to know your patient, understanding where they’re coming from and how they think. Virtual consultations can’t do that.
"You can certainly vet people who don’t need to be seen in the surgery. But the current guidelines are that they’re trying to encourage GPs to do more online consultation and less face-to-face, but that is not medicine as I understand it.
"As far as I’m concerned, as a traditional GP you need to see some people face-to-face, you need to give them reassurance, you need to examine them, talk about their feelings, their concerns and their worries.
"An online consultation, however much time you devote to it, can’t achieve the same sort of things you can achieve in a surgery.
"This worries me, it’ll change the face of medicine, it’ll change the doctor patient relationship in my opinion."
